Albert Einstein’s “happiest thought” has been proven again by four international astronauts and a small doll made in his likeness(opens in new tab).
Upon entering Earth orbit on Wednesday (Oct. 5), the crew members onboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft “Endurance”(opens in new tab) revealed their chosen “zero-g indicator,” a plush toy of the late theoretical physicist. Floating at the end of a tether, the doll not only confirmed that the Crew-5 astronauts were safely on their way to the International Space Station, but that one of Einstein’s ponderings was indeed true.”
A couple of years after he came up with his groundbreaking theory of special relativity, Einstein, in his mind, still had a couple of loose ends to tie up,” Crew-5 pilot Josh Cassada, a NASA astronaut, U.S. Navy captain and physicist, radioed back to SpaceX’s mission control in Hawthorne, California. “While he was sitting [at his job] in the patent office because he wasn’t famous yet — [though he] definitely should have been — Einstein had what he said was one of his happiest thoughts of his entire life … that a person in free fall could not feel his own weight.”
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